If you threw a dart at a map and wanted to aim for the center, provided you’re a pretty good shot, chances are you’d landed on the tiny nation of Malta. Malta is living history. You don’t walk to find history in Malta. You’re walking on and around hundreds of years of great stories. And that’s what we love about it.

The Maltese islands, made up of Malta, Gozo, and Comino, are only 122 square miles in total. They’re located 60 miles south of Sicily and 190 miles north of Libya, which makes for an interesting destination both historically and culturally. It really has the power position in the region, and countries have fought over who would control it for hundreds of years.

On this week’s show we headed to the Corinthia Palace Hotel & Spa, the very first property in the Corinthia Hotels collection. In fact, the hotel used to be a famous restaurant, and after Malta gained independence in the 1960s, the Pisani family decided to expand their property into a luxury hotel. We sat down with founder Alfred Pisani to hear that story, as well as with US Ambassador to Malta Gina K. Abercrombie-Winstanley about the American take on this special island and her life’s work as a career diplomat in postings around the world. Movie director Tony Attard shared his insight into the history and future of the arts in Malta (and which famous movies chose Malta as locations) and why the country has been chosen as the European Capital of Culture for 2018. Fancesca Balzan, curator of the Palazzo Falzon historic house museum, talked about the famous 10-hour watch as well as the stories behind the jewelry on the island.

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Check out this week’s guest list, listen to the latest all-local podcast, and stream the full show below.

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